A competition authority: will it become a reality one day?

On last Thursday Viorel Melnic, the Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade, addressed the Parliament.

One of the issues that he touched upon was the founding of the National Agency for Protection of Competition and Monopoly Regulation. The creation of such agency had been provided by the Law on Protection of Competition adopted in 2000. But until now it hasn't been founded. So, the Parliament asked the Deputy Minister about the reasons why that hadn't been done yet.

The answer was just great: it's actually the Parliament's own fault. Because they still had not appointed the head of the Agency and his deputies.

So, just imagine, the situation. In 2000 the Parliament adopted the law that provided creation of a specialized agency on competition. All national and international officials spoke that such regulatory body was absolutely necessary for the Republic. It was one of the obligations that Moldova had undertaken when joining the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe. And the only reason why it still doesn't exist is that the Parliament haven't find some time to appoint the agency's direction. Six years - and no result...

PS. By the way if you think it to be of any interest for you you can download the report on competition in Moldavian telecommunication market that I prepared for the seminar on competition that took place in Tartu, Estonia, more than 2 years ago. Here's the link to it: http://www.joensuu.fi/taloustieteet/ott/scandale/tarto/papers/Alexei%20Ghertescu.pdf